It is known that certain elements of space launchers, such as adjacent stages, are mechanically joined together by a composite structural component intended to transmit mechanical forces between said elements as necessary and provided with pyrotechnic detonation separation means incorporated in said structural component and able to break it along the straight or curved line of separation when said elements have to be separated from one another. Similar composite structural components also allow the satellite bearing structures to be severed on board launchers.
At the moment of rupture of such a structural component, that is to say at the moment of separation of the structural elements it secures, said pyrotechnic separation means generate a detonation shock of high amplitude, high frequency, and with a high propagation speed (several kilometers per second), propagating through the structure to which said elements belong, the amplitude and the frequency of said shock diminishing as it propagates through the structure.
Hence, in order to protect the equipment and the payload which are contained in said structural elements, it is common practice to provide a plurality of discrete damping means, generally sheets or strips of visco-elastic material, near said equipment and near the payload, so as to attenuate the shock, the amplitude and frequency of which have already been diminished by the propagation.
It will be noted that the arrangement of such a plurality of discrete attenuation means increases the complexity and the time taken to mount said equipment and the payload in the launcher.